Panama

UN team to inspect ship

A United Nations team is due to arrive in Panama next month to inspect a Democratic People's Republic of Korea ship that was seized carrying arms from Cuba, a potential breach of UN sanctions that the United States said was "incredibly concerning". The five-member team of UN experts will arrive on Aug 5 to examine the ship, Panamanian government officials said.

United States

Accused bomber photo released

A US policeman said he released photographs of accused Boston marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, including one with a red dot of a sniper rifle's laser sight on his forehead, to counter a "fluffed and buffed" image of him on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Sean Murphy took the photos during the manhunt for Tsarnaev, the younger of two brothers accused of killing three people and wounding more than 260 at the Boston Marathon on April 15 by detonating two pressure-cooker bombs.

Iraq

Suicide bomber kills 20 in mosque

A suicide bomber struck a crowded Sunni mosque north of Baghdad on Friday, killing 20 people, police said, as Iraq struggles to contain the worst violence since 2008.The bomber detonated explosives in the Abu Bakr al-Sadiq Mosque as the imam gave the Friday sermon in the town of Al-Wajihiyah, east of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, a police colonel said.The attack also wounded 40 people. A doctor confirmed the toll.

Australia

PM: We're closed to boatpeople

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Friday that no more boatpeople will be resettled in Australia as refugees, with all unauthorized arrivals to be sent to poverty-stricken Papua New Guinea. "From now on, any asylum-seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia as a refugee," said Rudd, unveiling his new hard-line border protection policy in an election year flanked by PNG counterpart Peter O'Neill.

Canada

42 dead from rail disaster

Police said on Thursday they had found four more bodies amid the ruins of Lac-Megantic, the Quebec town devastated when an oil tanker train derailed and exploded, bringing the body count to 42. Authorities said they are still searching for remains after the incident, in which some 50 are presumed to have died."We have found four more victims," Quebec police inspector Michel Forget told a news conference.

Reuters - AFP

(China Daily 07/20/2013 page8)